According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the original beer was brewed by women who lived cloistered in the brewery in the Wari Empire a millennium ago in Peru. John Laffler and David Bleitner from Chicago’s Off-Color Brewing have teamed up with Field Museum archaeologist Ryan Williams to reverse-engineer the recipe from residue found in vessels from the brewery. [slideshow:1128]

It’s a pretty fancy-sounding beer, too. The recipe is made with Peruvian purple corn and pink peppercorns, and tasters say it has a “very biting character,” with citrus and black peppercorn flavors and a deep color that’s both reddish and purplish.